AFS Among Inaugural Awardees of ACLS Microgrants for Fostering More Equitable and Inclusive Engagement with Early Career Scholars

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) announces the inaugural awardees of its Intention Foundry Learned Society Extended Engagement Microgrants:

• African Studies Association and American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (collaborative)
• American Folklore Society
• American Historical Association
• College Art Association
• Dance Studies Association
• National Council on Public History
• Philosophy of Science Association
• Rhetoric Society of America
• Society for Biblical Literature

The ACLS microgrant will fund a workshop at AFS’ 2024 Annual Meeting and follow-up conversations centered on inclusive folklore pedagogy, asking what teaching resources, career development networks, and tools we currently (and can) use to substantively engage with research and praxis from folklorists and/or communities of color; these conversations emphasize knowledge-sharing, inquiring how to support early career folklorists in implementing inclusive pedagogical work. This programming is co-led by Drs. Ebony Bailey and Anna M. Nogar and inspired by the exhibition, Notable Folklorists of Color: Expanding the Frames (curated by Drs. Phyllis M. May-Machunda, Olivia Cadaval, & Sojin Kim), which seeks to intervene in the citational and curricular practices of our field by recognizing the scholarly contributions of ancestor scholars of color.

As an emerging professional, I am always eager to learn from the many folklorists and cultural workers who are diversifying folklore studies and integrating diverse perspectives into their teaching methods and materials. Thus, I am honored and excited to have funded programming that will hopefully support knowledge-exchange and collaboration, aspects that are so valuable, especially as we face efforts, in and outside of the classroom, to erase the histories and futures of marginalized communities.

-Dr. Ebony Bailey, Grant Co-Director

With funding from the Mellon Foundation, ACLS established Intention Foundry (IF) in 2021 as a multi-year series of in-person and virtual workshops in which ACLS member societies collaborate with scholars and higher education administrators to develop and pilot actionable solutions to advancing equity, inclusion, and justice in their fields. This latest Learned Society Extended Engagement Microgrants of the IF program will support efforts by ACLS member societies designed to counteract practices and systems that create precarity among early career scholars from groups who have been systematically excluded, marginalized, or otherwise neglected in their fields or disciplines.

“Awarding this first round of funding for these outstanding initiatives led by our academic societies represents an important next step in addressing the kinds of pervasive precarity— intellectual, social, and financial—experienced by early career scholars,” said Jovonne Bickerstaff, Director, Intentional Design for an Equitable Academy (IDEA). “By investing in promising new pathways to support scholars who have less access to networks and opportunities, we hope to encourage more successful partnerships between societies and early career scholars in helping to establish more fair and equitable practices.”

Dr. Ebony Bailey is a writer, artist, scholar, and museum researcher. She earned her doctorate in African American Literature, Folklore Studies, and Narrative Theory from The Ohio State University, and her research examines the racialization of “the folk” in 19th century American folklore studies.